


The Legacy of Daemon Blackfyre

by QuietCuppa



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Jon Snow (mentioned) - Freeform, One Shot, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:19:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietCuppa/pseuds/QuietCuppa
Summary: Catelyn closed her eyes and enjoyed a rare moment of peace with her two daughters. They couldn’t be more different, and selecting stories for bedtime had become a battleground as a result. While Sansa cried at Naerys’ doomed love, and Arya thrilled at the Dragonknight’s battles, Catelyn was terrified of  Daemon Blackfyre: King Aegon the Unworthy’s bastard who attempted to steal his half-brother’s throne.





	

Catelyn looked down to where Arya’s head rested at her side, a small circle of spittle staining her dress. Sansa had succumb to sleep first, while Arya had struggled to stay awake. Catelyn indulged her youngest girl, reading far more of the tale of Aemon the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys than she originally intended. 

Instead of getting up, Catelyn closed her eyes and enjoyed a rare moment of peace with her two daughters. They couldn’t be more different, and selecting stories for bedtime had become a battleground as a result. Sansa wanted songs with shining knights and doe eyed princesses, while Arya was only content with heroes and warrior women. Even when a book included something for each child, they still managed to find a way to fight. Only a few nights ago, Catelyn abandoned the tale of the Targaryen conquest, which both girls had begged to hear, when they couldn’t stop arguing about which sister-wife was better: Visenya or Rhaenys. Sansa favored Rhaenys, claiming that she was the one Aegon the Conquerer loved and his true queen. Arya considered Visenya, wielder of the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister, the only true choice. As Catelyn tried to calm them down, she was left wondering about the story herself. How did those two vastly different sisters manage to share a husband and conquer six of the seven kingdoms? But then the Targaryen’s always had twisted ideas about familial relations.

Tonight’s story was no less troubling. While Sansa cried at Naerys’ doomed love, and Arya thrilled at the Dragonknight’s battles, Catelyn was terrified of  Daemon Blackfyre: King Aegon the Unworthy’s bastard whose attempt to steal his half-brother’s throne. His betrayal resulted in four Blackfyre Rebellions and the War of the Ninepenny Kings. How many lives were lost because Aegon undermined his trueborn children in favor the mistresses he loved more than his wife? And how can anyone who knows their history dismiss Catelyn’s fears?

Arya stirred, sensing her mother’s tension, and Catelyn willed her body to relax. Catelyn didn’t know Ned when they were wed, and he only stayed long enough to put a babe in her belly before riding off to war. It was Robb who she fell in love with. While her husband fought at Robert Baratheon’s side, she got to know her son, memorizing every dimple and every coo. Robb was hers and hers alone, and a small part of her hoped her husband would never return so she would never have to share their son.

But Ned did return, and he brought the bastard with him.

At first all Catelyn could see was another Daemon Blackfyre who would try and take what rightfully belonged to Robb, and she cursed her husband for loving another woman -- not more than his wife, but more than his son. At the time, she couldn’t imagine falling in love with Ned herself, and it shocked her when she did.

As much as she wanted to hate her husband back then, his goodness was undeniable. Ned’s eyes lit up whenever Robb tottered into the room on his tiny legs, and every time Catelyn’s heart skipped a beat. He agonized over decisions involving his bannermen and the smallfolk, not because he was indecisive, but becauses after all the suffering brought on by war and winter, he was determined to see his his people happy. Ned didn’t have the brash charm of his brother Brandon or the romance of Southern knights, but he was dedicated to her in his own, quiet way. He took note of her moods, likes and dislikes, and did what he could to please her. Most importantly though, he never expected anything in return. Everything he did was out of the kindness of his heart, and slowly it chipped away at the walls Catelyn had built until she could not help but love him. And she believed her husband returned her love.

But he still refused to let go of the other woman. 

When Catelyn opened up her heart to her husband, something insidious slipped in as well. The more she tried to forget her husband’s other lover, the more she found herself imagining the woman, and a new hatred grew. She tried to learn anything she could about the bastard’s mother, but on this one subject Ned always brushed her aside. Finally Catelyn demanded answers. It was the worst fight they ever had. Ned called Catelyn unreasonable for dwelling on a woman from the past who she never met. Catelyn promised herself she would be firm, and she was at first, but eventually the hurt was too much. Her tears only seemed to confirm her husband’s opinion that she was too emotional, and finally she gave up.

While Catelyn took pride in her strength, she learned to hold her tongue on the subject of Jon Snow. Over time, the Northern lords began to thaw to Lord Eddard’s Southern wife. Occasionally she would hear them whispering about the remarkable woman who tolerated her husband’s bastard with dignity. But there was nothing dignified about her situation, and while she put forward a calm exterior, it slowly ate away at her from the inside.

Finally, after seeing her husband’s pride when the bastard bested Robb at wooden swords, she could no longer hold it in. In desperation, she poured everything she was feeling into a long, rambling letter to her sister and sent it before she could change her mind. She expected Lysa to call her crazy: to chastise her for not being satisfied that Ned was a gentle man and good father. Instead, Lysa validated everything Catelyn was feeling. Her sister’s letter was like an oasis in the desert. Catelyn kept it with her, rereading it whenever she began to doubt herself.

While Lysa agreed that bastards are dangerous, especially those whose looks favor their fathers, it was her sympathy for Catelyn’s pain that soothed her. Lysa wrote at length about how someone who devotes their heart to another deserves to be loved in return, and how anyone who can’t see this affection is unworthy of the love given them. At times Catelyn thought her sister went too far. She did not want to inflict pain on her husband. She wanted to know that Ned loved her the way she had come  to love him. But Lysa’s words helped Catelyn understand she had a right to her feelings, and for that she would be forever grateful to her sister.

Instead of pushing them down, Catelyn began to analyze her emotions, weeding out the smaller concerns and articulating what really mattered. She even wrote down realizations she did not want to forget. And when she was ready, she approached her husband again, only this time she refused to back down.

Ned almost seemed panicked when she would not accept the same old excuses. While Catelyn believed the bastard posed a threat to her trueborn children, she knew that path would get her nowhere. As much as she hated to admit it, part of Ned being a good father was him caring for all his children, even Jon Snow. Instead, she focused on what she needed from him as a wife: his love. She could still remember when everything changed.

She told him they didn’t know each other when we were married. That he must have known she was unhappy, and she imagined he was too. She understood if he didn’t want her then, but she grew to love him. “Our marriage is not a duty to me. I’ve given you two children, and before the third is born, I need to know that you love me.”

At that he started to speak, but she was not done. “I don’t need the words. I need to know you feel it. You loved Jon Snow’s mother, but duty brought you back to me. As long as you hide a piece of yourself from me, I will always wonder where your heart truly lies.” She challenged him with her eyes, and he seemed to cave in on himself.

“Cat, you have to know…”

“No. I don’t know.”

It was rare to see Ned overcome by emotions, but he was close. He told her he loved her. That everyday he was amazed by her strength and her bravery. She scoffed, but he pushed back. She traveled far from home to a place where she knew no one. She carved out a life for their family, largely on her own as the aftermath of the war kept pulling him away. He told her he made mistakes in his past. That he misjudged people and situations. But every morning when he woke up and saw her beside him he thanked the gods that he got a chance to do things right with her. He said that their marriage, their family, was the most important thing in his life. She was almost afraid when he said he would forsake his duty for her and their children. Ned was the most honorable man she ever met, but there was a fierceness when he spoke, and she knew he meant it.

They stayed up most of the night talking. They didn’t solve everything, and years later they still haven’t, but she never again doubted her husband’s love. Now she mostly ignored the bastard, although she still felt the occasional twinge of fear or jealousy when she looked at him. A part of her knew it wasn’t right to take out her feelings on the one person who couldn’t defend himself, but he still represented a piece of Ned beyond her reach.

Catelyn sighed and made a mental note to talk to Old Nan about folk stories. For all their grandeur, underpinning the old histories were succession disputes and politics. Catelyn had had enough of both in her life. She needed something truly fanciful. Something far from anything her children were likely to face.

Slowly Catelyn eased Arya’s head onto her pillow and pulled the furs tightly around her. She stepped over to Sansa’s bed, smoothing her hair back before blowing out the candles. She knew Ned was waiting in their chamber. Part of her hoped he would greet her with that look. The one that said he still wanted her after all these years. But on this night, part of her was also tired. Their marriage was born out of horrible circumstances: kidnapping, rape, murder and war. And yet they managed to build something strong and beautiful together. Their love was all the more precious because it did not come easy. But it did not undo the past either, and on this night the past weighed on her.

But when Ned saw her he did give her that look, and she melted. Their lives could have turned out very different, but whatever happened to bring them together, she would was the one who got his heart in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Cat, but I love Jon more. I thought of this after reading the comments on one of my other fics. I never really considered how hard it would’ve been for Cat to have her fears dismissed, and how that dismissal may have taken the form of gaslighting. That doesn’t excuse taking her frustrations out on a child, but I wanted to explore her complicated feelings about Jon and Ned.


End file.
